FAMILY SPHHROMIDA, 69 
On the Propagation, Structure, and Classification 
of the Family Spheromide. 
By 
H. J. Hansen, Ph.D., F.M.L.S. 
With Plate 7. 
J. Inrropuctory REMARKS. 
THREE years ago H. F. Moore (“Rep. Porto Rican Isopoda,” 
in ‘U.S. Fish Comm. Bull.’ for 1900, vol. ii, p. 172, 1901) 
wrote on the Spheromide : “No attempt is made to furnish 
a key to the genera, owing to the extreme confusion that 
exists in this family, and it is doubtful if the following two 
species are properly assigned generically. The dissimilarity 
of the sexes has frequently misled authors into placing them 
in widely separated genera, and, while this has not been done 
in the present case, the limitations of the genera are so 
indefinitely established that the author has not been able 
to satisfy himself of the generic affinities of the species 
described.”’ It may be added that Moore, in reality, refers 
both his species to genera to which they do not belong. But 
his critical remarks quoted are correct, and convey an idea 
on the state of things; other authors have complained in a 
rather similar way, and the extreme difficulty in arriving at 
some clearness has probably been felt by every carcinologist 
who has attempted to name or describe a number of animals 
belonging to the family Sphzromide. 
During a stay in Messina and Siracusa in 1893 I collected 
